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Quai'op
Quai'op: a language with syllabic words and only a few steadfast rules on the shades of meaning of a syllable. It is a language isolate found in many different locations in the Philippines and Taiwan. When discovered in 1911 near Tuguegarao, it was thought to be gibberish or else a hoax because of its strange nature and lack of records, but it was discovered among some families in Gaoxiong several years later, in 1965 disproving this theory. While the origin is unknown, Quai'op continues to be a subject of study. There are currently between 10,000 and 40,000 speakers, including some foreign speakers. Phonology Vowels: : Consonants: : Digraphs: : All other consonants written in succession are pronounced separately. Syllable Structure -The fundamental unit of Quai'op is the syllable. -A syllable must begin with a consonant. Any above consonant can begin a word. Other consonant clusters can begin a word: c', ch', f', h', j', p', q', s', t', ɣ", cr, fr, jr, pr, qr, tr, chr, jhr, phr, qhr, thr, ɣ'r, pf, and ts. -A syllable must have a nuclear vowel, a main vowel, usually a, e, or o. -If the nuclear is not a, e, or o, it should have an accent on it. -Any vowel except a or e can be a medial, or a vowel before the main vowel. A medial vowel can only come after consonants and consonant clusters that do not contain ' or r (although ɣ', r, and ' can have medial vowels). -Only vowels i, u, and y or unaspirated (not digraphs ending in h) consonants listed under "consonants" can be used to end a word. A noun can be glottalized (cut off with the back of the throat), marked by a ' after the vowel. Examples of Syllables: Thrún Pyúh Cay' Nyeu Jya's Qruí Not Syllables: Thin (missing accent) Ay (must begin with consonant) Phryan (medial vowels not allowed after consonant clusters except r, ɣ', or ') Tiún' (apostrophe goes after vowel) Alphabet In Taiwan, the letters have two forms: nasalised and normal. This is only used to help students to learn nasalised pronunciations. Letter Normal Taiwanese (Nasalised) ' 'ot 'am a 'a 'an c cot chan e 'e 'en f fe fem ɣ ɣ'e ɣ'am h he hem i 'í 'ín j jot jhem m 'em ma n 'en na o 'o 'om p pot phun q qot qham r re ren s se sen t toc tim u 'ú 'úm y 'ý 'ýn Timing and Stress *Syllables with a nuclear "a" receive a heavy stress, similar to the falling tone in Mandarin Chinese, or a single-syllable sharp command in English. *Syllables with a nuclear "a" are twice as long as other syllables. *At the end of a syllable, c, j, p, q, and t have the same timing as a syllable. Grammar There are several parts of speech, each of which falls into a certain category. Nouns are people, places, things, or ideas that have names, and the different parts of speech tell the different parts of a sentence. Many of the noun cases are formed equivalently with a absolutive/ergative noun and the appropriate postposition. : *use this link for further detail or in case of confusion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grammatical_cases Nouns are always glottalized. Other rules that determine the exact part of speech of a noun are loosely followed. Word Order The basic word order is: Ergative-Causative-Verb-Evidentiality-Instructive-Dative-Absolutive Changing Parts of Speech : Absolutive-Ergative Particles In Quai'op, the ergative comes after the verb. The ergative tells what is undergoing most of the action. For example, in the sentence, "I broke the pencil," the pencil is undergoing the action, so it is the ergative. In the sentence, "The pencil broke," the ergative is the pencil. In Quai'op, the aboslutive comes before the verb. The absolutive is the agent, or what does the action to something else. For linking verbs, the linked nouns are listed after the verb. The table below shows the nouns that contain two pronouns, serving different purposes. : Examples of use: "I love you," becomes Jyís phún. Note that the ergative in this case is "I," because it is "I" that is feeling the love. "I take/took a picture of us," becomes "Tshio phau." Tenses The tense markers are as follows: : More common verbs have different forms for different tenses: : Evidentiality Evidentiality is important in Quai'op. It also provides the mood. : *'' Don't ask. Sreu The word ''sreu describes phrases «within guillemets». The guillemets indicate a stronger or higher tone, and are used when collectively placing a phrase into a sentence as a noun, or for emphasis. In the former case, the guillemets can be translated as the word "that." Example: Jyís chyop «tien p'a't». You love that the soup is hot. Often a question mark will be added in the guillemets. It can be translated as "whether" or it de-questionates question words. Here are some examples: Jyís chyop «tien p'a't?». You love whether or not the sout is hot. Jyís chyop «tap nua?». You love who is happy (lit. Love you-it «happy who?») Numbers There are many different types of number systems in Quai'op. Here are a few: : Conversation Hello (informal): yeh Goodbye: yuh Thank You: tur chau You're Welcome: ɣ'on phún What's going on with you?: cha'p The common way to greet someone is to say, "Te qa't tien huar jhún?" meaning roughly, "According to you, is the fire keeping you warm?" Names: Ma'm *The first syllable of a name is one of twenty-four "status-names": twelve for males and twelve for females. If a child is a male, he will receive his father's status name. If she is a female, she will receive her father's mother's. If one becomes a doctor, political leader, military general, or teacher, they receive the appropriate status name after their traditional status name. *The next two syllables constitute the given name. By tradition, they are chosen by grandparents, as in China. *The final syllable is the village with which one is associated, or sometimes their father's name if male. *Names never contain nouns *A common anonymous name (i.e. John Doe) is May Phiý Ruon C'ap Dialects Remarkably, the language's two dialects, the Taiwanese dialect and the Filipino dialect, have shown little divergence. The grammar is almost the same, but a speaker of one dialect may find the other dialect's word choice quite comical. Also, there are slight pronunciation differences as the tenuis consonants are voiced slightly in the Philippines. Some have even reported implosives as being used in some areas of Luzon. Example Text Hya'p fýr pah r'e hrým cueh «jam nua c'íf?» 'ep. Frau t'í 'op man 'yet moj qhay. C'hhiún jhyop «jam 'op c'íf» «t'í moi qhí moj». Fen hya'p fýr qhra'f jhý húy. Ɣ'roi t'í 'op man jam qhay moj. Hya'p fýr qiau hian jhý phrai. Pier tien r'e phrai. T'í 'op moi c'at moj. Ton n'uoi hya'p fýr «jam r'e jhí'f». IPA Transcription xyaʔp fyj rʔǝ xjym kuǝx pax ʧam ŋua kʔif ʔǝp fjau tʔi ʔɑp maŋ ʔyet qʱay mɑʧ kxʱiuŋ ʧʱyɑp ʧam ʔɑp kʔif tʔi mai qʱɛ mɑʧ fǝn xyaʔp fyj qʱɛ̆aʔf ʧy hjɑi tʔi ʔɑp maŋ ʧam mɑʧ qʱay xyaʔp fyj qɛau xiaŋ ʧʱy pʱjai piǝj tiǝn rʔǝ tʔi ʔɑp mɑi kʔat mɑʧ taŋ ŋʔuai xyaʔp fyr ʧam rʔǝ ʧʱif Literal Translation wind north sun dispute hearsay past strong who more.than.other topic. come travel patient wrap.around.oneself -ing cloak that.during. decide hearsay they.they strong patient traveler remove cause cloak. blow wind north best.of.ability his use. more.than.before travel patient wrap.around strong that.during cloak. wind north gave.up attempt his after.that. shine hot sun after.that. travel patient remove immediate cloak during.that. had.to confess wind north sun strong more.than him. Literal Translation They say the North Wind and the Sun disputed about who was stronger than the other. A traveler came wrapping a cloak around himself. It was decided that the stronger one would be the one who caused the traveler to remove his cloak. The North Wind blew to the best of his ability. The traveler more tightly wrapped his cloak than before around him than before as that happened. The North Wind gave up his attempt after that. The sun shone warmly after that. The traveler immediately removed his cloak. The North Wind had to confess the sun was stronger than him. Featured This language was once featured. Thanks to its level of quality, plausibility and usage capabilities, it has been voted as featured. Thuc ryap 'ar quai 'iap. Pfhu'p tuý'm hyo'r «na hrúf» c'oq c'hhiún «ryap 'a'r». Category:Featured Category:Languages Category:Quai'op